NNPP Tells Atiku To Step Down, Faults Report About Northern Leaders Forcing Kwankwaso To Step Aside

The New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) has come out to fault reports about northern leaders pressurising its presidential candidate, Rabiu Kwankwaso to step down for his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) counterpart Atiku Abubakar.

The party queried why they will ask Kwankwaso to step down when it is Atiku who is supposed to step down for him.

Naija News reports that the NNPP’s spokesperson, Major Agbo told Punch that the former isn’t stepping down for anybody, and that “How can anybody come out to say Kwankwaso should step down for Atiku? No, it is Atiku that should step down.”

He said Kwankwaso is in the race to win and will emerge winner at the 2023 general election as Nigeria’s next president.

Agbo, however, did not rule out possible alliance talk, which he said if anything at all, it would be done on the party’s terms.

The NNPP spokesperson also dispelled reports about alleged talks between his party and the presidential campaign team of the Labour Party.

He said “Go and ask Okupe (Dr Doyin Okupe). He was the one who scuttled the first alliance talk because he came into the negotiation with his ‘unusual’ agenda that Obi should be made the president. How can Obi be president over Kwankwaso?”

Similarly, the party’s National Chairman Rufai Alkali was also reported to have described reports about the northern leaders as untrue saying it’s a plot by persons who want to deceive Nigerians to score cheap political points.

Naija News gathered that Alkali submitted that it was initially reported about how Kwankwaso wants to step down for All Progressive Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, and now it’s Atiku.

He said, “It is completely false. We are not surprised at all that this story is coming out this way at this time. All discerning Nigerians have been following the pattern.

“They first said our candidate was going to step down for Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. When we debunked it, they said the NNPP had surrendered to the Labour Party and Peter Obi. When we explained the circumstances, they kept quiet.

“Next, there was an attempt by our elders at the Arewa Consultative Forum dialogue for Presidential candidates to present their manifestos. We agreed with the organizers but we realized that there were forces working to undermine the process by using the platform to endorse a Northern candidate. When Kwankwaso did not appear, that project collapsed.

“In the past few weeks, our candidate presented his blueprint which came out very solid. He was at the AriseTV -CDD Presidential debate which was very successful. He travelled to the South-East and spent three days in Enugu and Abakiliki.

“With all these achievements, fear has gripped them. They have now come up with another card that he is under pressure to step down. Step down for who? Under what circumstances? Has it happened in the history of democracy in Nigeria that a Presidential candidate with a strong party backing him, with Nigerians urging him to move on, will surrender his structures to someone else?

“Now that he has become a shining star, they are scared. It is sheer propaganda and psychological warfare and all those behind this should stop.”